


unlock it

by badbadnotgood



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Erwin and Levi are History Lecturers, London, M/M, University AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:01:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24094021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badbadnotgood/pseuds/badbadnotgood
Summary: Levi makes it into the next life.
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	unlock it

In true Ackerman fashion, Levi was dragged out of the womb kicking and screaming.

Whenever she gets the chance, Levi’s mother enjoys telling him how unruly he was as a child, even in the womb. _You’d kick me so hard in there that I would go to the doctor to make sure I was growing a person and not a killing machine_ , she’d tell him. It seemed he had a mission to get the fuck out of there as fast as he could, which Levi finds hard to believe since in his past life, he’d have done anything to have her as close to him as he could. He’d have done anything to make sure she lived a long, healthy life. Now, he has a second chance, and he’s holding himself to that.

It makes perfect sense that as soon as it was time to enter the world again, he wanted to stay put.

Most of his memories from his past life come to him in short bursts, like pickaxes in his chest, usually in the dead of night. He’s shown his dying mother, wasting away in their bed while Levi could only watch. He's shown his uncle shoving a sharp knife in his hand and telling him to make himself useful and torment someone with it. He's shown acres of land, bright and green. They go on for miles, contrasting with the blue of the sky. He sees sunbeams breaking through clouds and galloping horses in the distance. He rides for the trees. There's a thudding sound. A girl to his left, young with brown hair and bright eyes, announces they're coming. Levi sees red smoke, then green. He sees a handful of his comrades being crushed to death, eaten, ripped apart by giant humanoids. Titans. How absolutely, fucking ridiculous.

The nightmares, as his mother called them, prompted her to take Levi to a therapist.

He’s fifteen years old when he’s pouring his heart out to a stranger with a PhD about his bizarre visions of flesh and blood and butchered corpses of his friends.

Eventually, therapy and medication help. He doesn’t think twice about taking it because he wants to be normal, wants his brain to function the way a doctor thinks it should.

He goes to school and college and gets his head down because it makes his mother proud.

When he tells her he wants to teach, she pulls him into a tight hug and sniffs back tears.

*

At nineteen, he remembers Hange Zoe.

He’s chopping vegetables with his mother to make soup, and he cries right there. She presses a kiss into his hair and tells him to rest on the couch while she finishes up the food.

*

At twenty-one, he remembers Erwin Smith.

He locks himself in his room for two days and doesn’t speak to anyone.

*

At twenty-three, Levi steps out of King’s Cross Station.

He’s underwhelmed.

London certainly isn’t Disneyland, not that he was expecting it to be, but it’s hardly the mesmerising tourist attraction people have made it out to be. Then again, this is only one eyeful of the place.

It’s cold, the underground stairs to his right are swarming with disinterested faces, and Levi’s spotted two Prets already. This sounds about right.

He grabs his phone from his pocket and opens up Google Maps. It tells him the flat is only a ten-minute walk from where he is, which is ideal, he doesn’t fancy taking the tube and making an idiot of himself from not knowing the first thing about it. Is this the centre of it all, where he should be to get to and from? He hasn’t a fucking clue, honestly, and he’s half hoping his new housemate will babysit him for a few weeks until he gets used to the place.

Levi begins his trek, pulling along the one suitcase he brought with him. He’s a man of few possessions, only having the essentials like clothes, a wash bag, his laptop and whatever books he thinks he’ll need for work. His mother made him pack the tea set she got him for his last birthday even though he didn’t intend to leave it behind. It’s black and made of real fine china, and he loves it a lot. He loves that his mother knows exactly the kind of things Levi would think to buy. He misses her already, and she’ll be expecting a phone call from him soon asking about the flat and his “new friend”.

He checks the time, 5:23, realising that’s why he’s hungry. He needs tea, too, but his debit card is buried somewhere in his backpack and he just gave the last of his change to a woman who told him she needs money for a hostel tonight. He’s hoping the flat he’s about to move into is lived in by a sane person who drinks tea or at least has the decency to have it in the cupboard. They seemed relatively normal and apparently thrilled to have Levi come live with them if their exchange of messages is anything to go by. The abuse of the exclamation mark is a clear indication.

Levi thinks about stopping off somewhere for food, but he’d rather not have to stand around like a dickhead wolfing it down because there’s nowhere to sit. He wants all his stuff unpacked and away, too, so that’s first one the list. After getting to the place, obviously.

He walks past huge, white buildings where all the snobs live. They look out to small gardens that are surrounded by tall fences. It all looks like private land and Levi wants to get away from it as soon as possible.

When he lifts a hand to knock on the door of his new place, the nerves kick in. Levi’s never been good with new people, too reserved and private. But since he’s living with them now, that’s going out the window. He knocks.

When the door swings open, he thinks his heart stops.

“No fucking way,” he blurts before he can stop himself.

It’s Hanji, clear as day. Like god’s fucking plan. Levi swallows a few times, chokes on his own spit a bit. Hanji’s right there: bird’s nest of brown hair, glasses and bright eyes. Standing right fucking there.

“No,” they say, breathless, like the wind has been knocked right out of them. “Levi?!”

They remember him. Levi wants to cry.

Levi’s not even mad about being pulled into a crushing hug. He stands frozen for a moment, trying to take in the fact that he’s actually found someone. Not just anyone, but one of his closest friends. He forces his limbs to cooperate and return the hug, arms gripping tight at flesh and bone, telling himself it’s not a dream, that he’s found Hanji.

“I should have guessed it was you from the way you text, you loudmouth,” he says thickly. He can feel the tears stinging his eyes, threatening to roll down his cheeks, but he doesn’t care. Hanji’s death grip of a hug tells him they’re feeling the same way.

“Thought never even crossed your mind?”

“Never.”

Hanji's sniffling into his shoulder. “Me neither. Are you polite and approachable in this life?”

“Get fucked,” Levi says wetly.

Hanji barks out a laugh and eventually unhands him. “Come in!” they say, tugging Levi’s hand and dragging him in. “Do you still drink tea on tap? I really enjoy it in this life.”

“Silly question,” Levi tuts. “I’d fucking love some tea.”

Levi removes his shoes at the door while Hanji heads to the kitchen. He stares down a long hallway, bare walls and a lonely shoe rack pressed against a wall, a few pairs of Hanji’s shoes living there along with old mail. He pulls his luggage through the flat with him, dips in and out of some of the rooms. The place is nice. Boring, but nice. Levi’s grateful Hanji keeps the place tidy.

“Your room’s right at the end!” Hanji shouts from the kitchen. Levi hears the familiar sound of a metal spoon against a ceramic mug and smiles to himself.

His room is no different to the rest of the place, light walls and minimal decoration. The sheets on the bedspread look new and clean, though, and there’s a fluffy rug at the foot of the bed and a desk by the window. The view is essentially nothing it all, just the small patio outside the flat. There’s a pretty big wardrobe at the back corner of the room and two tables on both sides of the bed. There’s nothing more that Levi could ask for.

After he’s put his things away, organised his workload on the desk and placed a photograph of him and his mother on the righthand bedside table, he takes the antibacterial wipes from his backpack and does a quick clean of whatever surface he can reach.

Hanji has hot tea ready for him in the living room. He takes a seat on the left hand corner of the couch, crosses his legs and lets the steam from the tea heat his face.

Hanji’s staring at Levi like he might disappear into thin air any second now.

“Have you found anyone else?” Levi asks. He takes a sip of his tea, knowing it’s going to give him a burnt tongue and not caring.

“Yeah, Nanaba and Mike. Around the Uni.”

Levi's stomach flips at the names. Old friends. He thinks about Petra Ral, prays he gets to meet her again. Mostly, he hopes this life is giving her everything she deserves.

“You’re at the university?”

“Master’s student in Philosophy.” Hanji says, proud.

Levi can’t stop the toothy grin. “That’s so fucking you. Congratulations, brainbox.”

Hanji smiles, takes a sip from their tea. It’s good tea, Levi thinks. Breakfast tea with a citrusy hint to it. He takes a big mouthful when Hanji speaks. “And you?”

“I’m a History lecturer.”

“That sounds like something-,” Hanji says, but stops self-consciously. Levi hates that he knows exactly where they were going with that.

“Fuck off, I did really well with it in school. It’s actually intriguing as fuck.”

History was one of Levi's best subjects. There's a shitload of information to take in, and apparently Levi is a sentient sponge.

“Levi,” Hanji says carefully, pulling him from his thoughts. “I take it you haven't found Erwin.”

“No,” he says thickly. “I stopped looking when I realised it was driving me crazy.”

Hanji nods thoughtfully. “I’ve been looking out for Moblit for a while now,” they say.

Levi regards them for a moment. “Did the two of you ever-“

“No,” Hanji says. “Never. God, what a fucking waste.”

Levi shrugs. “There’s always this life.”

Hanji doesn’t look convinced. Something ugly twists in Levi’s stomach.

“What if we don’t find them?” Hanji says. They’re picking nervously at their thumbnail, something Levi’s never seen them do before. He wonders how it became a tick of theirs. “How fucking convenient would that be. We come back, traumatised from all the shit from our past life, and we don’t even get to find the people we loved?”

They sit in silence for a few minutes, and Levi thinks about Erwin. He's good at that, thinking about Erwin. The way he fought like a soldier, thought like a leader and looked like everything Levi didn’t know he wanted. Blue eyes, blonde hair, tall stature and sunkissed skin, the opposite of Levi. He remembers wanting to cut Erwin’s throat and watch him bleed out. He remembers taking up Erwin’s offer to join the Survey Corps, right at Erwin’s side. He remembers being at Erwin’s bedside when he lost an arm, the defeated look on his face when the loss of a limb told him he couldn’t fight like before.

He remembers, every night, the way Erwin would look at him, kiss him, pick him up and carry him to Erwin’s bed. He remembers the way Erwin would fuck him like he loved him, like Levi was something to behold and cherish, and he remembers Erwin telling him just that.

 _Like ying and yang_ , Hanji had said.

He doesn’t realise he’s crying until Hanji is flailing around, the sound of them opening and slamming the kitchen drawers in search of a box of tissues ringing through the flat.

“Sorry,” he croaks when Hanji returns. “Had a moment.”

Hanji just looks at him like they go through the same thing day in, day out. They’d managed to locate tissues, eventually, pulling several out the box and shoving them in Levi’s face. They allow Levi to blow his nose hideously before speaking again.

“You find anyone?”

Levi shakes his head. “No, but my mum’s alive and well, which is more than I could have asked for.”

“I’d love to meet her,” Hanji says honestly.

“Yeah,” Levi says. “I think I’ll grant you that.”

They drink more tea and catch up like two long lost friends. Levi feels it fill part of the void he’s always had, even after remembering. Hanji’s more reserved in this life, preferring to listen and observe, though still animated and passionate when they talk. They’re smart as fuck, too. All the charisma they had in their past life seemingly made it into this one.

“Can you cook?” Levi asks at some point, and Hanji laughs in his face.

“Definitely not, so I’ll be leaving that to you. The fridge and cupboards are stocked up if you wanna go and experiment.”

Again, Levi is so grateful for his mother. It was always just them, and she was teaching him how to cook as soon as he could walk.

He dips into the kitchen and has a rummage around. Hanji actually did a pretty good, grown-up food shop. That fucker really was going to leave the cooking to whoever was moving in.

Levi tuts and grabs everything he needs for a bolognese.

Hanji keeps an eye on Levi’s cooking progress and makes obnoxious, pleased noises every now and again. Yes, it smells amazing, if Levi does say so himself. He loves being in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, whatever. It reminds him of his mother. He makes another mental note to ring her immediately after they eat.

After Levi dishes up, Hanji finds something for background noise on Netflix while they eat. Levi feels comfortable, warm. He thought this move would be tough because he’d be away from his mum, but Hanji’s here and that’s more than he could have hoped for.

“You seen any of the kids yet?” Hanji asks.

“No,” Levi says. “And I still feel like there are people that I haven’t remembered yet.”

Hanji nods thoughtfully, fork twirling in their spaghetti. “Me too. Bet we’re in for a treat or two.”

“Yeah,” Levi says. “I’ll ask my therapist if he’s open to taking on new clients.”

“I hope you’re not joking,” Hanji says, “Because that would be great.”


End file.
